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Identifying The Identity Global Forum

Your online identity and interactive simulation

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The roles assigned to identity are broken up and passed among different interests. This would seem to be appropriate for it almost seems like something this valuable being cannibalized for different needs is the way these things are usually treated - a bit offensive, yes? This intends to express the confusion that normally comes with the term, for those that are conditioned one way will not see it ‘the other way’ hence the confusion. This is because among philosophers, psychologists, and businesses identity means something completely different from what an individual would think.

During many periods of transitions, there is a development that has taken place, past what one experiences as the sense of established identity. This tends to carry on onto internet profiles with the same attached value. You won’t be using your real name, just one you’ve made up. You may also take the path of developing a completely different character with a different persona and tastes. This is often the case through multiplayer game profiles such as second life, Eve online, World of Warcraft and others that attempt to put you into a environment that by extension you can take part in. Avatar is a good example of this form.

There is a level of maintenance that is required for that character to survive, but how much of a connection does the holder of that character have where they can’t simply close their accounts and move on to other things. As often as that is done, is there perhaps some psychological interpretation from that relationship that applies to other things in life such as responsibility? Obviously this is the ability to remove oneself from the artificial identity because they are able to distinguish between their true identity and the virtual one. The harder identity to break down and fix is the one that we have developed for ourselves.

Another interesting way of looking at this from within that virtual environment is how the other virtual identities react with each other. This is somewhat of a fresh start of escapism where if one wants to establish a utopia where they can escape to, then they can. But there are still rules here and they are valued among the many, just like they are in true society. Through the expression of other manipulators, there is still segregation and intolerance. But they do exist as a way for the player to distance themselves from real world issues.

It is questions like this that thrust identity into something more than what we carry in our wallets, but it is also easy to see how we value our true identity at one point and then devalue it in another. Cultural boundaries help to develop self-interest as a group, as something unique and something to compare. We cannot get far away from it completely and are instead reeled back in because of that and forced to either accept it or struggle with it.

Unlike a game, we are not able to disconnect our identities here but we feel as if we have experienced something different when we are really just acting in similar ways in that world like we are here and not necessarily a fresh start either. There is a tendency to think that identity doesn’t really exist in this case other than the appearance that it does. This makes it obvious that our mind needs the escape because our bodies cannot go with it, and really can take any form of identity that it wants. So we are no longer anymore confined to our identity here as we are anywhere else.